Editorial: Any choice by this governor would be the wrong choice

Wednesday

Dec 31, 2008 at 12:01 AMDec 31, 2008 at 6:22 PM

A U.S. Senate seat is too “bleeping golden” to be caught up in the circus created by Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

A U.S. Senate seat is too “bleeping golden” to be caught up in the circus created by Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. On Tuesday Blagojevich introduced a new act when he appointed former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to fill out Barack Obama’s term.

The ultimate ringmaster, Blagojevich made his choice despite Democratic U.S. senators saying they wouldn’t seat his pick and despite Secretary of State Jesse White saying he wouldn’t certify the selection. Blagojevich thumbed his nose at them and the people of Illinois.

Burris, the first African-American elected to major statewide office, has a history of public service untainted by scandal. So it’s curious that while all others are running away from the governor, he’s running with a governor who has been under investigation for years.

Perhaps it’s because he has nothing to lose. He hasn’t had much of a political career since he left the attorney general’s office in 1995. He’s run for governor three times, finishing third in the 2002 Democratic primary behind Blagojevich and Paul Vallas.

Burris seems oblivious to the accusations that surround the governor, accusations that included that Blagojevich tried to sell the very seat Burris hopes to take. Burris smiled like a 5-year-old on Christmas morning as Blagojevich introduced the 71-year-old at a news conference in Chicago. That smile faded a bit as the questions from reporters got louder and tougher. He stumbled over questions about campaign contributions to the governor.

Considering the pay-to-play allegations against Blagojevich, the answers to those questions are critical.

Burris couldn’t even answer a simple question such as whether he would run for the office in 2010. He appeared as clueless as he did when he visited this Editorial Board in 2002 when he was hoping to win our endorsement in the primary for governor.

In 2002, Rockford did not have passenger air service. We asked him what he would do to help bring passenger service back to Greater Rockford Airport. Burris didn’t realize that Rockford lost passenger service. It was inexcusable for a gubernatorial candidate not to know about a key issue in what then was the second-largest city in the state.

That lack of knowledge doesn’t inspire much confidence if he beats the odds and gets the senator’s job.

Enter U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush to create a distraction. Rush introduced the race card by saying how important it is to have an African-American in the Senate (there are none) and that the public shouldn’t allow the accusations against the governor to taint the man the governor chooses.

“I would ask you to not hang or lynch the appointee as you try to castigate the appointer,” Rush said.

That’s difficult. How can we separate a man who U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said brought Illinois to “a truly new low” from that man’s choices?

How can we not wonder how Burris’ name rose to the top of the list of potential candidates when prosecutors tell us the governor was in the midst of a “corruption crime spree.”

“This is not about Mr. Burris; it is about the integrity of a governor accused of attempting to sell this United States Senate seat,” Senate Democrats said in a statement released an hour before the governor’s news conference. “Anyone appointed by Gov. Blagojevich cannot be an effective representative of the people of Illinois and, as we have said, will not be seated by the Democratic Caucus.”

The governor got one thing right Tuesday. He said the people of Illinois deserved to have two U.S. senators in office during this critical time in our nation’s history.

Illinoisans deserve that representation, but the choice needs to be made by someone other than Ringmaster Rod.